What would a basic income cost in the DR Congo?
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Total cost per year
325 trillion Congolese francs
about 121 billion US dollars
113 million people × 240,000 Congolese francs a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2022)1,071%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2022)1,008%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2022)1,251%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)133%
The DR Congo in numbers
The DR Congo has a population of 113 million (2025) and a GDP of 244 trillion Congolese francs (about 91 billion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone 240,000 Congolese francs a month would cost 325 trillion Congolese francs a year (about 121 billion US dollars), or 133% of GDP. That equals 1,071% of central government expense (2022), 1,008% of its revenue (2022), and 1,251% of its tax revenue (2022).
Children only (under 18: 59.2 million) would cost 171 trillion Congolese francs a year (70.0% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 53.6 million), 154 trillion Congolese francs (63.4%).
Default amount: 240,000 Congolese francs a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day, converted into Congolese francs at the exchange rate implied by the World Bank's GDP in local currency and in US dollars (2025), because there is no recent PPP conversion factor, and rounded to two significant figures. It is a reference point, not a policy proposal; change it above.
How to read this
This is the gross cost: the total paid out. The real net cost depends on which taxes fund it, which benefits or tax breaks it replaces and whether the payment is taxed. The population, budget and GDP figures are not all from the same year (see the sources).
Sources for the figures
- Population
- World Bank: population, total (SP.POP.TOTL), and population by single year of age 0 to 17 (SP.POP.AG00.FE.IN … SP.POP.AG17.MA.IN), 2025
- SP.POP.AG00.FE.IN … SP.POP.AG17.MA.IN
- Government expense and tax revenue
- World Bank: central government expense, revenue excluding grants and tax revenue, % of GDP (GC.XPN.TOTL.GD.ZS, GC.REV.XGRT.GD.ZS, GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS), 2022
- Default amount
- World Bank: international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), June 2025 update
- Retrieved from the World Bank API on November 9, 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Government figures are central government, as a share of GDP in their own year, applied to the latest GDP.